The Columbine High School massacre and the more recent Sandy Hook massacre are the very epitome of our violent selves, made worse in the innocent children who were the primary targets. Teachers and staff who tried to save their students were also killed. These two but singular shootings were only the worst and most notable of a pattern of violence built-in by nature. The evidence is now just too prevalent, self-consistent and consilient with nature to ignore. See Peace via Nature’s Way for both the causes and some ways forward.

What follows are excerpts and [commentary] of the Columbine and Sandy Hook massacres along with a listing of similar shootings world-wide insofar as they are reported.

The Tea Parties are the historic tendency of Americans to form third parties in a huff over how things are going. Sometimes, as with the Bull Moose party, they are organized from on high. Other times, they arise from a more or less radical grass roots. The Tea parties of today are somewhat of a mixture--right-wing leadership folks generally sick of governments. We will use the plural until all factions agree on a common definition of who they think they are. Today's movement was largely energized by the media, Fox News in particular. Coming from the right wing behind governor Palin,--a figure head so far--prospects for this new movement are not yet clear. Meanwhile we provide some links for your reference.

Bacevich is that rare military man who is able to understand and appreciate the roles armed services play or should play in society within nations and between societies among nations. This book, by an acclaimed conservative historian, is a must-read for those who aspire to understand conflict in a global perspective and the role of politics. At the same time, it is an excellent primer for voters who despair of the same old promises, promises, and yet more promises that come endlessly out of the mouths of politicians only to die unkept, forgotten. Finally, and unusual for a professor of history and international relations, Bacevich offers solid suggestions with both feet planted firmly on the terra firma. Platitudes are not part of this man’s lexicon. His is a clinical world of ebb and flow of events, each affecting events that follow, just not in ways expected or desired by the actors of the moment.

Shades of Lysenko and Himmler, not to mention Pope
“What’s His Name” who put Galileo under house arrest and burned the great philosopher,
Giordano Bruno at the stake. Times have not changed, but to democracy’s everlasting credit, the methods have. Bush’s many critics in government scientific positions merely face being fired, forced to draw conclusions opposite to what their data says, denied rights to publish, being excluded from their career work, compromised of their integrity, or muzzled, all in the name of politics, religion, or whatever it is that drives extreme behavior in the White House. Like the nameless pope, Mr. Bush’s ultimate legacy in history will include his futile opposition to truth and justice. Meanwhile he has done America a grievous disservice.

And well he should be. Ruling by intimidation only goes so far. When you lose your allies, they feel free to speak honestly.

"This is the most incompetent White House I've seen since I came to Washington," said one GOP senator.

"The White House legislative liaison team is incompetent, pitiful, embarrassing. My colleagues can't even tell you who the White House Senate liaison is. There is rank incompetence throughout the government. It's the weakest Cabinet I've seen."

"And remember, this is a Republican talking." David Ignatius; Washington Post

Wouldn't you know, the stuff of life, the Periodic Table, reproduces itself in modern politics. In each case the extreme lefts and rights can't tolerate each other; at the same time they need each other. Sodium, missing a chip on its shoulder runs into chlorine with an extra chip on its shoulder; they react in great heat to annihilate each other as identities to become something else--the salt of the earth--you know, that bitter stuff that collects in the Dead Sea basin for lack of a better place to go. The same thing happens to the other alkalis and alkaline earths on the left when they encounter any of the halogens on the right. They all make bitter salts that go nowhere.

"It is no accident that we are seeing such extensive suppression of science. It is part of a theory of government, and I believe it is a theory we must vociferously oppose."
David Baltimore, Nobel Laureate, President of California Institute of Technology, most influential biologist of his generation; (2006 annual meeting of the AAAS, St Louis.)